John 7:14-24
Notes
Transcript
Righteous Judgement.
Not self-righteous but Righteous Judgement.
This is the heart of today’s message.
Wednesday community group.
Somehow got into the discussion of how lost our current world is and the stuff with Charlie Kirk, pertaining to same sex marriages and transgender issues.
And Gill made a comment about “yes that is bad but so is premarital sex” or “hooking up”.
Which to I replied “ya but I don’t feel like that is being forced on me the way the other is”.
Which Gill said something like “both are wrong, why do we put so much focus on only one?”
Which made me stop and realize, to some degree I am bias...
Ouch… I was convicted of having a worldly type judgement.
I’m used to the premarital sex or hooking up as they say, heck I’ve even contributed to that area of sin.
I was convicted of incorrect judgement in two different ways!
Coming down on one in this self-righteous, pharisee speaking, unloving way and the other as “oh it’s really not that bad, I don’t recommend it but it’s not the worse thing”.
What in world! So it’s not ok for two men to kiss, but it’s kinda ok to pervert the relationship between a man and woman of becoming one just for momentary pleasure and than breaking that union.
With the possibility of bringing a child into this world, based solely on your wanting to be pleasured!
With a great possibility of leading that child being raised in a broken home!
I soon came to realize, maybe the reason we’re in the spot we’re in is because maybe some truths are overlooked and in overlooking those truths, it has caused more damage...
Righteous judgement, what is it?
Let’s read today’s passages.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Pray
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.
Jesus is at the Feast of Booths. A Jewish festival commanded by God to remember the exodus from Egypt and how God provided during their 40 years in the desert. While wandering in the desert for 40 years they stayed in booths or tents. Not a permanent home, they wandered.
And at this festival we see Jesus go into the temple and begin teaching.
The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
Listening and hearing but not seeing, why? All these miracles, signs, wonders, talks, and truths shared but still they ask..how?
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
And Jesus clearly answers them!
These teachings of truth, these aren’t mine but His who is truth. I am of Him and here to do His will. Listen...
What is one of the key passages we find that is blocking them from understanding?
If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will”
A key phrase for all righteous judgement.
First of all let's speak about the elephant in the room so to speak.
Judgement.
“Judge not, that you be not judged.
Probably one of the most misused verses out of the bible.
The heart of this, let continue in Matthew for a moment.
For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
This is self-righteous judgement.
Quick to point out everyone else’s faults for what? Self-glorification.
“Do you see so and so doing this” or “oh my word do you see what they’re wearing?”.
Or the example Jesus gives in Luke 18:9-12
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
On the other hand is righteous judgment.
We are to judge what is best for our children.
What is best for others.
And ultimately what is best for God.
Hence right after Jesus gets done with verses 1-5 in Matthew 7 He carries on into verse 6 saying this.
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
How do you know who is a dog or a pig, with righteous judgement.
With righteous judgement of who you are and who God is.
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is righteous judgement.
Not putting yourself above others in self-glorification but putting yourself equal to others as a sinner.
This is the heart of a Christian.
Humbleness, humility, not thinking of oneself too highly
By not doing these things, we are lead to our will over others and worse off yet, our will over God’s...
So when we read...
If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
How do we get in tune to God’s will?
Humility and submission to Him and His Word, this comes before understanding.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
You want truth, you want the will of God, you want straight paths as Christian, start here!
In opposition to this truth we have the first part of verse 18
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
Remember the opposite of humbleness & humility...Arrogance & Pride.
Pride brings deafness, blindness, and death.
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Read the last part of 18 and close with the two being polar opposites. Humility & Pride.
Moving on.
Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
Jesus now goes to prove who’s authority they follow or who’s will their doing. Their own, in their self righteousness.
You have the will of God plainly written within the 10 commandments and yet none of you keep it. In fact you’re seeking to kill me!
For what? Is this the will of God? Are you sure? Test what I say and do against the written word.
The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
The crowd’s response, is “you’re crazy, who’s trying to kill you?
Oh, how fast they forget!
John 5:2-18
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
If there’s one thing for certain we find in scripture, most of the Jews, especially the religious elite, wanted Jesus dead!
This question of “who is trying to kill you” is laughable.
Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.
You’ve seen this man for 38 years, lame and couldn’t walk, now walk and you all have no reason for this to happen naturally!
You seen this!!
Who has the power to do this? Why do you marvel? Because God!
Judge with righteous judgement!
Could you be wrong about your judgement against me? Go, read, study the things I say!
Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?
If you’re not to do anything on the Sabbath, why do you circumcise on the Sabbath?
Circumcision let's read about it in Genesis.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
99 years old at this time and well out of their prime.
This type of covenant right of the bat is a miracle in the making itself.
Carrying on.
And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,
both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
We have a covenant of blessing & curse.
One is to cut something away and be blessed and the other is to not cut this away and become cut away from his people, God’s people.
One is a people of God and the other is not.
Circumcision, what comes to mind besides the obvious when reading of this word within scripture?
Circumcision of the heart.
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
This cutting away of the old, sinful nature of our hearts and given a new heart.
The same with this covenant, God’s covenant. A commandment given to all the people of Abraham.
This cutting away represents the cutting away the sinful lineage of Adam and instills a new lineage with God!
God’s people, chosen to be a light to the world.
We see that this covenant with Abraham and his offspring is quite important.
So much so that if the 8th day falls on the Sabbath, they still perform the circumcision.
What do we see here?
One is greater than the other.
You are called to rest but your first called to be mine.
You are called to rest but your first called to love.
Rest in the Lord is very important but if it comes before love, it is no longer rest but religion.
What do I mean? The very story we just read about.
That commandment lost the heart of it and became religiosity.
No longer resting in love to be able to love but the resting in their own stinky self-righteousness, casting out unrighteous judgement on others.
This is what Jesus is trying to wake them up to!
Who’s will are you doing? Do you understand the will of God?
Is it just about do’s and don’ts? Or is there purpose behind all of what God commands?
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Right judgement comes down to a few questions.
Who’s the authority in our lives?
What are we submissive to? Is it Jesus.
Are we open to the teachings of scripture and listening?
Are we obedient to the teachings of scripture, to the point of worldly weakness, even dare I say it, percucuation?
What a mess to speak on one's own authority, one's own will. Always changing, never perfect. Flawed in incomplete understanding.
Again, do we take all of scripture as truth or only the parts that we like or make the most sense?
Are we submissive to all of scripture and God’s will or just what we like and is the easiest to do?
Who’s glory are we seeking? Why do we do what we do? His will or ours?
Judge who Christ is and who we are in right judgement.
Holy, spotless. Sinner, dirty. Took my dirty clothes and gave His righteous robes.
Is He worthy to be our authority?
Is He worthy to be submissive to?
Is He worthy to be our Lord?
Do our lives represent that?
Let the Lord judge our hearts in His righteous judgement and correct where correction needs correcting.
All we need to do is say “Lord, your will be done” Amen?
A common structure for a sermon includes five parts: Introduction, Exposition, Illustration, Application, and Conclusion. The Introduction grabs attention and presents the main idea, the Exposition explains the biblical text's meaning, Illustrations make the meaning clear and relatable, the Application shows how the teaching impacts daily life, and the Conclusion summarizes the message and issues a call to action. Here is a breakdown of each part:
1. Introduction
Purpose: To capture the audience's attention and introduce the sermon's main idea.
How: Start with a compelling hook, such as a story or question, to show why the topic is relevant.
2. Exposition
Purpose: To explain the meaning of the biblical text.
How: Clearly present the truth of the biblical passage, often using a three-point outline based on natural divisions within the text.
3. Illustration
Purpose: To clarify and make the meaning of the text understandable and relatable.
How: Use stories, examples, or other methods to illustrate the concepts being discussed. Illustrations should be used throughout the sermon, not just saved for the conclusion.
4. Application
Purpose: To connect the biblical teaching to the listeners' lives.
How: Explain how the truth of the passage applies to their beliefs and daily practices. Include practical actions to help people take the next step.
5. Conclusion
Purpose: To summarize the main points and prepare the audience to respond to the message.
How: Restate the main idea and challenge the audience to take a concrete response or action.
